2012 F1 season

Fernando Alonso admitted he has input into who his future Ferrari team mate might be.

The two-times world champion added he’d be happy for Sebastian Vettel or Lewis Hamilton to join the team.

Asked in the European Grand Prix press conference whether he has previously had a say in team’s other choice of driver Alonso said: “In the past, never. Now, in Ferrari, yes.”

“I’m in Italy every week. So when we are there I see the president, I see Stefano [Domenicali] and we talk about development of the car, we talk about GT – now there is some work doing a new car that will be at the end of the year, we are doing some tests for the GT car.

“We talk about the future in F1, about the Corse Clienti – which is owners that have old Formula 1 [cars] that they want us to be there to teach some senior drivers – and also about the future and team mates as well.”

Asked if he could veto a potential driver Alonso said: “I doubt – we talk but, at the end, it’s their decision.”

He responded “no problem” to the suggestion of rejoining his 2007 team mate Lewis Hamilton or welcoming reigning champion Sebastian Vettel to Ferrari. Yesterday Domenicali suggested Alonso and Vettel could “coexist” at the team.

He added some words in support of his team mate: “I have a lot of respect for Felipe. And I think the challenging moment that, even if from the outside it’s difficult to notice this, what a challenging time he’s given to me in the last three years, it’s not that, even if from the outside it looks easy.”

84 comments on Alonso would welcome Vettel or Hamilton to Ferrari

It’s interesting to hear Alonso openly admit having impact on Ferrari driver decision but I’m not surprised that he says he would welcome Vettel or Hamilton aboard as anything else could be interpreted as fear of challenge. No F1 driver would want that.

I think Ferrari are pretty happy with the current situation where they have a clear number 1 driver. They might prefer a number 2 that would be able to score more points than Massa but no star duo. For sure, they need to think about the future and be prepared for unexpected turns so Vettel might join them some day but I’ll be surprised if that happens as soon as in 2014.

You could ponder on driver changes for 2013 onwards for ages… I have been ;-)

Alonso should be at Ferrari until 2016. If Vettel does join him in 2014, that would leave only 2013 vacant at Ferrari. This would rule Perez out of that seat, and leave Massa and Webber.

Therefore, if Webber goes to Ferrari for 2013, his career would end at the end of that season. If he wants to have the 2014 option, he needs to stay at Red Bull.

However, if Webber did say with Red Bull but called it a day at the end of 2013, and Vettel also left at this time, then this would leave Red Bull without a driver for 2014. Therefore, Vettel’s pre-contract with Ferrari may mean Webber in fact loses his Red Bull drive for 2013, to allow the team to integrate a new ‘No 1′ driver, and have a one year overlap with Vettel.

Red Bull, being the World Champions and full of ambition, will want a big name. None of the recent or present Toro Rosso drivers have done anything to show they could make the jump to the A team. This must bring Hamilton in to play. Hamilton seems like he would be a perfect fit for Red Bull; marketable, young, fast – and of course the link-up with Newey.

However, Hamilton’s noises this week suggest he may stay at McLaren.

A scenario in my head would be that Hamilton signs a one-year contract extension at McLaren, and then leaves for Red Bull in 2014, to replace Vettel who moves to Ferrari. McLaren, with their penchant for Finns, sign Bottas for 2014, following his highly impressive debut 2013 season for Williams.

The easiest way to eliminate one of your biggest rivals? Bring them to your team where you have god-like position.
Despite all of this “we would welcome Lewis/Sebastian” talk, reality is that Ferrari would have a choice of either upsetting one of their champions or both of them. History showed that peaceful and fruitful coexistence of two drivers with WDC ambitions is impossible. Either they are in constant conflict which damages the team or one of them experiences slump in form, mostly because of mental reasons (like Lewis when he started being outmatched by Jenson last year). So as long as Alonso is a genuine championship contender, there can’t be other one at Ferrari.

alonso and hamilton are the two best drivers in the world. when they were together at McLaren was a shame. Hamilton’s father denouncing alonso and ron denis did nothing. They can be together and Hamilton’ s and ron Denis Will not be on the Ferrari team

McLaren 2007 was a completely different situation. What I can read of 2007 McLaren season was that, the top management of McLaren and Alonso had never thought that LH would be so quick and consistent from the word go. No doubt, Lewis came from a rare breed of ultra talented drivers, but to have instant success was unexpected by his own team. FA and the management always saw LH to support FA’s title bid in 2007 and then see how LH develops in the future. It was very evident from Ron Dennis’ message to FA via team radio after the Malaysian race,

“Great job Fernando, I am so pleased for you. Lewis was P2 so he took a few valuable points from your’s (inaudible)”.

FA said,

“Fantastic, Lewis have it guys. Fantastic!”

It was a clear case of preferential treatment in Monaco when LH was called in early then scheduled in order to allow FA the lead. Lewis mentioned in the driver’s conference,

“I have no.2 written on my car so…”

By Canada, McLaren had decided to give equal treatment to both drivers which upset-ed FA since he never expected that especially in his 1st year. He started whining and by China the situation became really worse when FA accused his team of changing tire pressures which cost him lap time in qualy (might be true) and after qualy he reportedly broke the team’s motorhome door by slamming it hard in anger.

I don’t really understand why Ferrari would want a driver like Vettel or Hamilton right now.
For Fernando it’s not a big deal, probably. He has grown up a lot since 2007, so he won’t have problems with a competitive team mate. And besides, he has Ferrari’s full support.

It doesn’t make sense for Ferrari to take Vettel or Hamilton. They are clearly number 1 drivers and they would give Alonso a hard time. It could lead to difficult situations.
You don’t necessarily need two number 1 drivers to win the WCC. Massa is a bit lost right now, but drivers like Webber, Perez could do the job without annoying Alonso too much.

In my opinion Vettel could join Ferrari in 2016, which seems to be Alonso’s last year in Ferrari. If Alonso outperforms Seb, Ferrari could say that he had to get used to the new team. And from then on Vettel could be the new number 1 driver in the team.

Massa has with a few exceptions been lost since his near death accident. Looking at who caused it, it should be the Mercedes team, who provided the retirement job Massa has. I just don’t understand Ferrari. I calculated Massa to be the worst team-mate of all the 4 top teams in 2010. He almost took no points from Alonso’s competition. I could see why it could be a good idea for Ferrari to try to hire Vettel or Hamilton, but I can’t see any sensible arguments for any of them to take the job – at least not if they want more titles. Vettel should glue his career to Newey, surely that will bring him the most titles possible. Hamilton should stay miles away from Alonso or history will repeat it self. Ferrari needs an almost top driver with a less shiny Ego and No. 2 written on his forehead.

Ferrari will never hire Hamilton no matter the circumstances. Hamilton understands that and stated as much a couple of years ago when he said he adimired Ferrari’s history but could retire from F1 and never have driven for Scuderia. Besides, Hamilton is very sensitive to his whims of his fans. Also the Tifosi and the Horse Whisper would pitch a hissy fit if that were to happen. This is Italy we are talking about.

Sounds good, I wouldn’t expect him to say any less though. I severely doubt Ferrari would prioritise Alonso over Hamilton or Vettel without just cause. We’re talking about three drivers, all with world championships to their name. Ferrari would be mad to blindly favour one driver over another.